Ottawa – Liberals today called on the Harper government to put the $2-million savings from their bill to end old-age pensions for prisoners towards programs and services for victims of crime.

“The Harper government likes to trot out victims of crime for policy announcements or invoke their names when they rise in Question Period, but they are all talk and no action when it comes to making investments in programs and services that actually help them,” said Liberal Public Safety Critic Mark Holland.

Despite their claims of being the champions of crime victims, the truth is the Harper government has consistently undermined victims of crime.

They cut the budget of the Grants for the Victims of Crime Initiative by 41 percent and the Contributions for the Victims of Crime Initiative by 34 percent, or $2.7 million. The latter is money that would go directly to community groups and initiatives that help victims recover from trauma. In addition, they fired Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime, Steve Sullivan, and have left this vital position vacant.

Liberal Seniors and Pensions Critic Judy Sgro said the Conservatives have been politicizing the prisoner pensions bill by fallaciously telling people that the Liberal Party does not support it.

“We support the idea of preventing prisoners from receiving publicly-funded old age security benefits – but we also think the government should put the money where their mouths are and re-invest it in helping victims of crime,” she said. “Of course, given the Conservative track record in this regard, we don’t expect they will move to help victims of crime.”

Mr. Holland pointed out how the Conservatives have spent more than four years playing this hypocritical game with victims of crime.

“We do support the bill because we do not believe that the Canadian taxpayer should have to pay for offenders twice,” he said. “But we demand that the government do more than just blow smoke about victims – they need to take real action, and devoting the savings from this bill to programs and services that will truly help victims of crime would be a good first step.”

This site is about the unsolved murder of Theresa Allore who died November 3, 1978 in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. If you have any information please contact her brother John Allore, johnallore(at)gmail (dot)com